Intimidation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Intimidate)

This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.

WikiProject Law or the Law Portal may be able to help recruit one.
If a more appropriate WikiProject or portal exists, please adjust this template accordingly.

Intimidation is generally used in the meaning of criminal threatening.

Intimidation is a criminal attempt to threaten by speaking or acting in a dominating manner, often with the goal of making a person or people do what the intimidator wants.

Threatening behaviours are supposed to be a maladaptive outgrowth of normal competitive urge for interrelational dominance generally seen in animals. In case of human beings, threatening behaviours may be more completely modulated by social forces, or may be more mercilessly plotted by individual egotism.

Like all behavioral traits it exists in greater or lesser manifestation in each individual person over time, but may be a more significant "compensatory behavior" for some as opposed to others. Behavioral theorists often see threatening behaviours as a consequence of being threatened by others, including parents, authority figures, playmates and siblings.

Intimidation may be employed consciously or unconsciously, and a percentage of people who employ it consciously may do so as the result of selfishly rationalized notions of its appropriation, utility or self-empowerment.

Intimidation may be manifested in such manner as physical contacts, glowering countenance, emotional manipulation, verbal abuse, purposeful embarrassment and/or actual physical assault.

Criminal threatening is the crime of intentionally or knowingly putting another person in fear of imminent bodily injury.

There is no legal definition in English law as to what behaviour constitutes "Intimidation", so it is up to the courts to decide on a case by case basis. However, if somebody threatens violence against somebody, then this may be a criminal offence.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, the crime remains a misdemeanor unless a deadly weapon is involved or actual violence is committed, in which case it is usually considered a felony.

Criminal threatening can be the result of verbal threats of violence, physical conduct (such as hand gestures or raised fists), actual physical contact, or even simply the placing of an object or graffiti on the property of another person with the purpose of coercing or terrorizing.

Criminal threatening is also defined by arson, vandalism, the delivery of noxious biological or chemical substances (or any substance that appears to be a toxic substance), or any other crime against the property of another person with the purpose of coercing or terrorizing any person in reckless disregard for causing fear, terror or inconvenience;

"Terrorizing" generally means to cause alarm, fright, or dread in another person or inducing apprehension of violence from a hostile or threatening event, person or object.